This essay intends to address the argument that the concept of sustainable development robs the Poor World of any possibility of convergence with the Rich World. Sustainable development is the new buzz word in the game of development and economic growth. As such sustainable development will be examined at a conceptual level and its implications for the Poor World and LDCs will be drawn out. At a practical level a case study of climate change and how this environmental challenge can be addressed through sustainable development will also be examined. Through this case study it will be established that the concept of sustainable development robs the Poor World of any possibility of convergence with the Rich World if and only if the Rich World does not in this global push toward sustainable development support the Poor World both financially and technically. Essentially without this support the Poor World cannot and will not be able to concurrently purse the all important goals of economic development and environmental sustainability.
In 1987 the World Commission on Environment and Development conceptualised the idea of a sustainable society as one that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (cited in Meadows et al. 2004, p. 254). Herman Daly thus contends that in determining the sustainability of an economy’s economic output the following criteria must be meet, “its rates of use of renewable resources do not exceed their rates of regeneration, its rates of use of non-renewable resources do not exceed the rate at which sustainable renewable substitutes are developed and its rates of pollution emission do not exceed the assimilative capacity of the envi...
... middle of paper ...
...hington, DC, 2010, chp. 2.
United Nations Development Programme, 2006, Human Development Report 2006, New York, UNDP, pp. 263-273.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), 2010, UN Climate Change Conference in Cancún delivers balanced package of decisions, restores faith in multilateral process, United Nations, Bonn, Germany, 2010, pp. 1-2.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), 2011, The least developed countries – Reducing vulnerability to climate change, climate variability and extremes, land degradation and loss of biodiversity: Environmental and developmental challenges and opportunities, United Nations, Bonn, Germany, 2011, pp. 1-15.
World Wildlife Fund (WWF), 2010, Living planet report 2010 – Biodiversity, biocapacity and development’, WWF, Switzerland, 2010, pp. 1-9, 34 & 85-86.
...i, X., . . . Johnson, C. A. (Eds.). (2001). Climate change 2001: The scientific basis : contribution of Working Group I to the third assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press.
(8) Barbier, E. B.; Markandya, A. The conditions for achieving environmentally sustainable development. Eur. Econ. Rev. 34, 659-669. (1990).
The concept of sustainable development, a relatively new concept has now taken action into the structure of many present day organizations. Identified as “green growth”, the formation of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index provides a platform for managers to understand what it takes to be a sustainable organization. On the subject of sustainable development, the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) sponsored by the United Nations published a report defining as,“Development that meets the needs of the current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs and aspirations” (WCED, 1987). Sustainable development is composed of the following two notions. First is the idea of sustainability (to maintain), and secondly, development (to make better) (Bell, 2003). Improvement of our own lives today does not mean at the cost of damaging the quality of
Schmandt, Jurgen, and Ward, C.H. eds. Sustainable Development: The Challenge of Transition. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
According to the International Institute for Sustainable Development, sustainable development is defined as development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. If we follow this definition, it becomes easy to see that the vast majority of the “developed” world has not, and is not developing sustainably. The idea of sustainable development requires us to consider how our action of developing will affect other countries, and future generations. Many people believe in “the butterfly effect”, where the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in one part of t...
What is sustainability? There is a Native American (n.d.) proverb which says: ‘When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realize that one cannot eat money’. Defining sustainability is a challenge itself, achieving it is even more arduous but what it is certain is the consequence of not acting sustainable. For too long the main goal of western countries has been profit, ignoring the extended list of benefits deriving from acting sustainable. The sustainability topic offers a wide range of arguments to discuss but in this paper only few of them are reviewed. Firstly, the 'three-legged stool ' model as a way of conceptualizing sustainability and its stability will be
Sustainability is a concept with a diverse array of meanings and definitions – a widely used glamorous, ambiguous, ambivalent and vague concept that is used by different stakeholder groups in various ways. Presumably to avoid noodling over a terminology or to avoid the confrontation with a definition, most widely the concept is broken down a planning process (c.f. e.g. Döring & Muraca, 2010). That is why most common sustainability is understood as sustainable development.1
Sustainable development defined by Sustainable Development Measurement index (N.d.) as “sustainable development refers to social, economic, and environmental development that meets the needs of current society without compromising or limiting future development and growth” (Cantor, 2001). In short, the theoretical approach on sustainability contains three essential elements, which are social, economic and environmental development. In order to achieve sustainable development, nations are needed to balance between the economic development, environmental protection and social consensus. However, in recent years, numerous ecological damages brought by economic and industrial activities and led to disputes among the society. The growth of the human
Quite often, these two sides appear to face each other with opposing prescriptions for future world development. The former argues for environmental protection and creation of a stable ecosystem; the latter supports jobs and increased development of Third World countries. Yet this false dichotomy between jobs and the environment need not exist. The key is promotion of worldwide sustainable development, or development that “meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the needs of future generations,” as defined by the Worl...
The concept of living within the ecological boundaries of the Earth means that we have to use natural resources in a sustainable way, this means that these resources should not be used to the point where their threshold is exceeded and they become depleted. Although this is the case, we also have to look at this from a social point of view. We cannot live within our ecological boundaries if the world’s population is living under the social foundation. In other words, we need to use the world’s resources in a way that they are sustained, while still providing the world’s population with basic living needs, this is essentially sustainable development (Raworth, 2012). Sustainable development is an attempt to combine environmental issues with socio-economic issues (Hopwood et al., 2005), this therefore encompasses the ideas of ecological boundaries and a solid social foundation.
Sustainability simply defined to me as balancing act between the development of sustainability is necessary for both planet Earth and humans to survive. This is reinforced in the World Commission on Environment and Development report (1987) that sustainable development must meet the needs of the present without compromising the well-being of future generations”. The Earth Charter Organization widened the idea of sustainability to respect for a culture of peace, universal human rights, nature, and economic justice (What is sustainability?, n.d.).
Harris. J.M. 2000 Basic Principles of Sustainable Development, Global and Environment Institute Working Paper 00-04, USA
The expiration of The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) has made the post 2015 landscape an intergovernmental priority. The revised Sustainable Development Goals, (SDGs) propose seventeen global initiatives that focus on the eradication of extreme poverty whilst also considering economic development and environmental protection (Veit & Hazlewood, 2014). Whilst Matuschke (2015) agrees that this is a “pivotal year for sustainable development”, she also questions the validity of these global directives, as there remains a disjuncture between their “conflicting aims.” This essay will consider the extent to which the SDGs address three global imperatives for development; global economic power, climate change and inequality.
Over the past few decades there have been discourses both in favor and against Globalization’s capacity to guarantee a sustainable future. Authors attest societies and businesses’ inability to account for ecological and environmental limits when dealing with economic growth, examples of this are some of the traditional business metrics used by most global companies, and nations’ measure of wealth (GDP); both sides heavily resting on economic factors, fail to account for societal and environmental concerns (Byrnea & Gloverb, 2002). Other researchers point at the intensive use of resources, especially by global corporations; such as the increasing and careless consumption of fossil fuels, water, precious metals, etc. leading to a rise in GHG (Starke, 2002) (United Nations Development Program (UNDP), 2000). Most fervent opponents go as far as to call ‘sustainable development’ an oxymoron (Ayres, 1995).
‘Development that meets the needs of the present with the ability for the future generation to meet their own needs.’ (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987) Sustainable development requires three key components: economy, society and environment, sustainable development can be success through striking balance in those factors. These three components are indispensible, they compel to depend on each other. On the other words, we can only gain a decent and energetic environment and society if the economy is strong with a healthy a stable growth rate.